F7 is back to normal, pushing towards the last microcycle on most of the progressions before moving on to new movements. My ankles are still being recalcitrant, so I’m dedicating more time to using all of the tricks in my MWOD tool bag to get them back in action.

This is a deload week for the Foundation and Handstand programs, so everything drops to 1/2 volume; it’s also my last encounter with my nemesis, the first progression for the Hollow Body Press, incline pushups… 75 reps in a 3-4 minute window was not doing it for me.

The QDR holds are improving, still a little intense on my wrists. After a few days of practicing rotations into low bridge on the wall along with low bridge slides, I tried to do a full rotation into low bridge on the floor…. suffice to say it was discouragingly awkward. I think I have more work to do. Boulder flooded hard this week, so I took Thursday off the help take care of our house, which, thankfully, had pretty minimal damage.

I tweaked my left anterior deltoid last Friday, so I took it easy this weekend and warmed up slowly today to make sure it was good to go (it was). To help recovery I applied Traumeel, ginger oil, Helichrysum italicum oil (per Ido Portal), and a “trauma salve” my housemate (an herbalist) gave me 3x each Saturday and Sunday. Ido recommends the following anti-inflammatory protocol:

3x per day:

Ice 20 minutes

Apply Traumeel, Helichrysum italicum and wintergreen essential oils

On third application, apply with cotton ball soaked in hot water, leave on affected area and wrap in plastic overnight; remove in morning

Shoulders are hard to plastic wrap, shockingly, and my wintergreen oil is in the mail, so I did what I could. I’ve been hesitant to ice since Kelly Starrett reversed his position on the practice (one-year follow up discussion here), so I did a short ice massage before each application instead, hoping to induce a refractory increase in circulation. My immunology conscience always wondered why icing was recommended across the board for acute injury, even while people started to question the efficacy of NSAID use in the same context…

Incline pushups have been my nemesis; the German arm swings take about 15 seconds to finish, so my shitty endurance makes it hard to complete 75 reps with little rest. Stiff leg windmills, my other goat, have been improving too as the impingement in the back of my left shoulder improves.